On the hunt for Esquimalt grads

Lynn Pasula holds up a page from her yearbook with her high school portrait showing (closest to her face). Pasula is helping organize a 40-year reunion for Esquimalt High grads.

Contacting people for a class reunion is kind of like a mystery, with organizers trying to find clues to their whereabouts.

Lynn Pasula (nee Kennedy-Rainy) is helping put together a 40-year grad celebration for Esquimalt High this April 27. While she and many other grads from 1973 went all through grade school together, she admits some people are tough to find.

“When you’re doing the reunions you turn into the detective,” she said from her home in Esquimalt. “We have lists upon lists. You follow up leads and ask people if they’ve heard from so and so, you go to Facebook, Classmates.com – anywhere you think you might find past grads.”

The committee has contacted people from as far away as Ireland and Australia, but so far the longest travelling attendees will be from Ontario and Manitoba, she said.

The 35th reunion attracted about 100 people and at last count the number was around 70 for this year’s shindig.

“We’re aging and it’s getting harder for people to get away,” Pasula said. “They’re retiring and they’re turning into snowbirds as well.”

Among the confirmed members of the class who are attending is valedictorian Tom McEvay, the man considered Mr. Wrestling in his longtime home of Port Alberni, for developing the sport in the schools there.

In putting out the call to past grads, Pasula said it’s an opportunity to reconnect with people you’ve known for years, but maybe haven’t seen for some time. “You went to school with them for years and all of a sudden it ended and you started a new life.”

The reunion happens from 6 p.m. to midnight at the Ukrainian Cultural Centre at 3277 Douglas St.

Tickets are $45 each or $80 for a couple in advance, or $50 and $90 at the door and include a meal and dancing. Contact Pasula at 250-744-3131 for advance tickets or other information.